wrestling / Video Reviews
Memphis Wrestling (10.8.1983) Review
Image Credit: Memphis Wrestling
Loading...-Originally aired October 8, 1983.
-Your hosts are Lance Russell & Dave Brown.
-The Bruise Brothers stroll in with their new Southern Tag Team Titles, and they’re dismayed that Lance Russell isn’t even organized to make sure that the film of the match is cued up for them. Lance changes the subject and demands to know where Jimmy Hart is because he’s supposed to come out in a chicken suit. Bruise Brothers don’t want to talk about what happened in THAT match and won’t elaborate on where Jimmy is.
-We skip the Bruise Brothers’ squash match on this copy and go straight to Lance’s next interview, with Buddy Landel and the Midnight Express, and in this case, Midnight Express means Dennis Condrey & Norvell Austin. They pledge their full allegiance to Jimmy Hart, a better manager than Gary Hart OR Rock Hunter!
-Wow, the guy who owned this VCR loved everything about wrestling except the wrestling, because we skip the next match too. Here’s Bill Dundee, who’s taking time off to recover from a concussion. Bill Dundee says that Jimmy Hart is in the building and wearing the chicken suit, and he’s attempting a brilliant little scheme where he IS physically here and wearing the suit, but with no intention of coming out in front of the TV cameras.
-With that, we go to highlights of Monday night at the Mid-South Coliseum, with Jesse Ventura defending against Jerry Lawler. This is the match where we were told that there would be no highlights on television per the terms of the San Diego Chicken’s contract. I think what happened is that Jerry Jarrett must have figured, quite rightly, that nobody in San Diego actually gave enough of a shit to monitor the local wrestling show in Memphis, because there he is at ringside, cheering on the King, and even engaging in some helpful chicanery, putting Lawler’s foot on the rope to get him out of a pin at one point.
-Jesse goes to the floor and slams Lawler onto a table, then goes after the San Diego Chicken. Ventura runs all over the ring while Lawler rolls back in, and Ventura completely forgets the stipulations for this match and gets counted out, losing the title!
-Jesse Ventura is indignant that Lawler would use a guy in a chicken costume to turn a title match into a total farce, and BY THE WAY, everybody knows that every other wrestling promotion on earth has a 20-count, but Eddie Marlin is some sorta maverick who only has 10-counts as an end run around guys that he doesn’t want to win.
-Lance calls Jerry Lawler, who is in Cleveland pre-recording some segments for The Jerry Lawler Show. Jerry agrees to a rematch, no time limit and no DQ, to stop Jesse’s whining. Lawler slings so many insults that it finally draws Jimmy Hart out here in his chicken costume. The Bruise Brothers come out to the commentary table to taunt Bill Dundee, who isn’t looking for a fight because he’s recovering from that concussion, but they poke the koala one too many times and Dundee finally snaps and topples the table to get the brawl going. Two-men-and-a-chicken-on-one is too much of a disadvantage for Dundee and he’s overwhelmed.
-Bill asks Lance to make another phone call to Jerry Lawler to explain what just happened. Lawler thinks that Dundee has done enough to redeem himself and agrees to help Dundee get some revenge.
-We get some quick clips of a bullrope match, with Austin Idol defeating Stan Hansen, and it’s weird how they present it because it’s very SHORT clips while Lance describes the finish, which is not how this promotion normally did things. It sounds like they did a Dusty finish involving confusion over who touched the fourth turnbuckle first. Austin Idol wins the International Title but agrees to Hansen’s demand for a rematch under bunkhouse rules. Idol shows off the noose and the loaded cowboy boots that he’ll bring to the arena.
ROCK & ROLL EXPRESS vs. PAT HUTCHINSON & PINK PANTHER
-Hot damn, there’s a match on this tape!
-…Or maybe just an angle. Because here come Dennis Condrey & Norvell Austin. They want a match and they dare the Rock & Rolls to hold them to ten minutes. The jobbers clear the ring to accomodate everyone.
ROCK & ROLL EXPRESS vs. MIDNIGHT EXPRESS
-Ricky & Robert are wearing matching green tights, Dennis Condrey is wearing green tights, and Norvell is wearing red. Norvell should be very suspicious of Condrey then.
-Ricky & Robert get Austin on his back in their corner immediately and just go nuts his leg, hanging onto him for every dropping, jerking, and snapping maneuver they can think of. Condrey tags in and gets exactly the same treatment. Midnights pull the old referee-distract-a-me-doo and take control as we hit the four-minute mark of the match.
-Ricky gets the hot tag and Robert cleans house, but Buddy Landel swoops in to help his buddies for the DQ. Buddy uses a cowboy boot to open up Gibson’s skull, because of my favorite logic in wrestling, a boot held in the hand is more lethal than one on the foot.
DUTCH MANTELL & KOKO WARE vs. PINK PANTHER & GALAXIAN
-I love this, they can’t even maintain the pretense of giving these guys two completely different opponents to maintain the illusion that the angle in the previous match was spontaneous. They’re sending Panther out there to EARN his pay for coming to the studio this week. Powerslam by Koko and an elbow by Dutch for the pin.
-The Rock & Roll Express is back out here. Robert made a phone call to his brother Rick in Florida. That makes three long-distance phone calls in the past hour of television, which means there’s going to be a padlock and chain over the water cooler at the next TV taping. Rick Gibson has agreed to come up here to partner up with Rock & Roll for a six-man match next week!
Tommy Rogers and Koko Ware are here to talk about their upcoming bout against each other. Tommy is defending his Jr. Heavyweight Title against Koko. They exchange pleasantries and agree it’s going to be a good clean scientific match between opponents who like and respect each other.
